205 



A FERN PARADISE. =^ 



While in Ireland during the end of June it was a real 

 pleasure to re-visit Lemonfield, Holywood, on Belfast 

 Lough, and shake hands with our octogenarian friend, Mr. 

 W. H. Phillips, and see his unrivalled collection of hardy 

 ferns, all British, with their many and variously tasseled 

 sports, the more especially as the friend travelling with us 

 was an expert, and knew the fern world from " A to Z." To 

 go over a thousand or two in such congenial company was 

 an educational treat, as well as a social delight, as Mr. 

 Phillips describes each variety with first-hand knowledge, 

 having found many of the rare sorts in his fern-hunting 

 rambles ; and the fine personality of his accounts where 

 this was got, or the happy accident that displayed another 

 gem to his '' eagle eye," gave point and interest of a most 

 characteristic nature. Readers of our paper have lately 

 had the pleasure (which all fern lovers duly enjoyed) of his 

 racy description of how he became a Fern hunter ; therefore 

 they will understand how the more telling voice, with the 

 very specimens before him, were striking texts from which 

 to expatiate on their qualities, differences, developments, 

 from common-looking forms to the crested, feathery beauty 

 they now displayed. As it takes a real judge to select from 

 a batch of foals one that has the making of a Cawdor Cup 

 winner, so only a born fernist can see in the rather raw, 

 half-developed seedling the future novelty, which all growers 

 will desire. It is impossible to detail, even by name, a 

 more than representative few of the innumerable Ferns at 

 Lemonfield. Non-experts have no idea of the "sports," 

 the "finds," of the last twenty years in British Ferns! 

 Even in one or two classes, as Hartstongues, Athyriums, 

 and Polystichums, the varieties are legion. The cult is 

 very modern, but the enthusiasm of Fern lovers has been 

 great, so that in fifty or sixty years the results are amazing. 

 Mr. Phillips grows them in flat, sunshiny borders in 

 ordinary garden soil, fortified with leaf mould, etc., as the 



^••By psrmission of The Scottish Ga-'d'-ner cvid Northern Forester. 



